Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Ilya Martha Kessler - November 1, 1982

Can you describe for me your life before the war began? What you remember?

I had uh, two brothers, uh... One was three years younger and the other one was six year younger. And my mother was very young when they took us, she was uh, thirty-four years old. My father was forty-four years old. And uh, I went to school. I was a little girl. Then they took us and uh, I had to grow up.

Yeah.

And uh, it was terrible, you know.

Yeah.

So, we lived in a small place. It's a small... Sixty-five uh, Jewish family lived there. And they made a living. They had a little stores, like in Europe, uh...

Mm-hm.

Uh, my father has a pa... He was a painter, so he had a drek shop and uh, we always had everything because my father was working. And if the uh, people didn't have money they paid, uh... If they bought, they paid with a chicken or what else... And ??? So, we always had... We lived comfortable. There's lots uh, of poor people was there. And uh, it was very nice, I uh, ??? My parents lived very nice, very comfortable. And they didn't need it. They didn't need ??? we got no car. And uh, they was happy, they was religious, and uh, they was happy what they had.